It so happened that, in the Chandravamsha, or in the lineage of the moon dynasty, there was a king by the name of Gaadhi. Indra, the king of the heavens, was born as Gaadhi in the Chandravamsha. He had a daughter who was very beautiful. Her name was Satyavati. Once, Sage Ruchika approached King Gaadhi.
Sage Ruchika said, “O King, I have come here with a request. I want to marry your daughter Satyavati.” At this, King Gaadhi thought for a while, and then said, “Okay! I will give you my daughter, but on one condition. You need to bring me 1000 white horses, each possessing one black ear, and they should run with the speed of wind.”
On hearing this, Sage Ruchika agreed to the challenge given by King Gaadhi. Now, Sage Ruchika went to Varunaloka because Varunadeva had many horses with him. In Varunaloka, Sage Ruchika asked Varunadeva to give him those 1000 white horses with black ears, which could run with the speed of wind. Varunadeva, with a gracious heart, gave those 1000 white horses with black ears.
Sage Ruchika brought those horses to King Gaadhi and gifted him those horses, and then King Gaadhi, gave his daughter to Sage Ruchika. Sage Ruchika married his daughter Satyavati, and both led a happy life. Now, King Gaadhi had no sons. He just had Satyavati as his daughter. He wanted a son. Therefore, he requested Sage Ruchika to provide him with sons.
Sage Ruchika also didn’t have any sons. So, what he did was make two rice puddings, and in one rice pudding, he invoked the mantra for a Brahmin child, and in the other, he invoked the mantra for a Kshatriya child. The Brahmin child was for Sage Ruchika and Satyavati, whereas the Kshatriya child was for King Gaadhi and his wife named Paurukutsi or Paura.
Now, King Gaadhi’s wife, Paura, thought that since Sage Ruchika and Satyavati were young, they would chant more mantras for a strong and excellent child for them, and anyway, Gaadhi and she (Gaadhi’s wife) were old. So, he would provide them with a child by chanting fewer mantras, and it would be less strong than Sage Ruchika’s son.
So, King Gaadhi’s wife, Paura, told Satyavati, the wife of Sage Ruchika, to exchange the rice puddings. Satyavati, too, out of love for her mother, exchanged the rice puddings. Both ate the rice puddings. When Sage Ruchika got to know about this, he was stunned and said, “Why would I be doing any kind of injustice to King Gaadhi and his wife?”
He said, “Actually, I had put equal mantra shakti in both the rice puddings, one for a Brahmin child and another for a Kshatriya child, and you exchanged them and ate them? Now, we would have a Kshatriya son who won’t have any attributes of the Brahmin, and King Gaadhi and Queen Paura would have a Brahmin son, who would not have any attributes of the Kshatriya.” Now, when they learnt about the same, Satyavati was tense.
Sage Ruchika said, “We cannot reverse what has happened. But I can do one thing. I can shift it to our next-to-next generation. We will have only a Brahmin child. But then, our child’s child would have the attributes of a Kshatriya.” Therefore, to Sage Gaadhi and Paura, Kaushika was born. He was by birth a Kshatriya, but by attributes was a Brahmin.
Now, a Brahmin child was born to Sage Ruchika and Satyavati. This was none other than Sage Jamadagni. Sage Jamadagni married Renuka Devi. From Renuka and Sage Jamadagni, Lord Vishnu incarnated as Lord Parashurama. Lord Parashurama is none other than Saakshaat Bhagavan Vishnu Himself. There is no difference between Lord Parashurama and Lord Vishnu. Both are equal.
[Image of Lord SriBhaargava Rama (SriParashurama)]
Here, this Kaushika was a Kshatriya by jaati. He once went hunting and reached Sage Vasistha’s hermitage. There, Sage Vasistha had a cow named Nandini, who was the daughter of the Surabhi cow (Kaamadhenu). Sage Vasistha welcomed Kaushika and, with Nandini's help, fed him. Nandini, a divine cow, could produce anything a person desired.
Kaushika was very happy to know this. He asked Sage Vasistha to give this cow to him. Sage Vasistha refused to give the cow because he wanted it for his yagyas and other austerities. Kaushika was angered by this, and he attacked Sage Vasistha. Sage Vasistha kept his brahma danda (the stick he had with him) in front of Kaushika. All the arrows hurled by Kaushika failed against the brahma danda of Sage Vasistha.
Kaushika instructed his army to forcibly take away Nandini, but as the soldiers came there, a group of strong soldiers came from Nandini’s body and killed all the soldiers of Kaushika. Kaushika realized the greatness of Sage Vasistha and asked for forgiveness. Then, Kaushika did penance to get Brahminhood. With the grace of Bhagavan, he received Brahminhood and was named Sage Kaushika.
He was later known as Sage Vishvamitra, who took Rama and Lakshmana with him to kill the demons. Sage Vishvamitra had done penance in each direction (North, East, West, South) for 1000 years, and is the first one who saw the Gayatri Mantra, which we chant today. So, for the Gayatri Mantra, the Rishi is Sage Vishvamitra, and the devata is Lord Savitra naamaka SriNarayana, who is the indweller within Suryadeva in the solar orb.
Sage Vishvamitra was so determined that he wanted a position equal to Sage Vasistha. For that, he performed penance for a very long time, and from Rishi, he became Maharshi. From Maharshi, he became Rajarshi. He wasn’t pleased with this. Then he did more and more penance and attained the status of Brahmarshi. He had great power of penance with him, and was a great devotee of Lord Rama.
So, this was the story of how Lord Vishnu incarnated as the son of Sage Jamadagni as Lord Parashurama, and the birth and story of Sage Vishvamitra, the son of King Gaadhi. Lord Parashurama is the Supreme Bhagavan Vishnu, who is worshipped by Lord Brahma, Lord Shiva, Indra, and other devatas. There is a yagya by the name Vaishvadeva.
To eat rice, we need the right to eat. Because we don’t prepare the food ourselves. Surya and Chandra are responsible for the growth of the crops. Indra is responsible for the rain, due to which the crops grow. So, it is the devatas who help the crops to grow well, so that they reach us, and we cook them and eat them.
But these devatas don’t do all this independently. They are ultimately dependent on Bhagavan Vishnu for their powers. So, the main source of everything is Lord Vishnu. So, to gain the right to eat the anna, we perform Vaishvadeva Yagya. For Vaishvadeva, the deity who accepts our oblations is Lord Parashurama.
So, every grihastha must perform this Vaishvadeva. If one cannot perform Vaishvadeva, the maximum what they can do is, to take some cooked rice, and put it in the fire, saying, ‘May Lord Parashurama be pleased.” Or you can also take water and put some rice in it, thinking, “May Lord Parashurama be pleased.” Or else, if you have the provision to do the yagya, then you must do it properly.
Note: I mentioned all this as an extended part of this answer, because it was related to Lord Parashurama’s greatness and our duty, which we must not miss.
Hope this helps!
Jay SriRam!
ShriParashurama Abhinna ShriKrishnarpanamastu!